Uploaded November 2010 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Entelechie II was Peter Schat's second piece bearing that title. It is based on a text by Bert Schierbeck. The loose-leaf score consists of sex scenes in which "subjects" are framed by "commentary," "interruptions," and "incantations" in accordance with strict serial principles. Each secne is preceded by an incantation sung by the mezzo-soprano and led by one of the musicians, the so-called guide, who uses "signals" to indicate which fragments are to be performed. As in Entelechie I, the ensemble is split into five groups placed in different parts of the performance space.
Peter Schat (June 5, 1935, in Utrecht - February 10, 2003, in Amsterdam) was a Dutch composer.
Schat studied composition with Kees van Baaren at the conservatories in Utrecht and The Hague from 1952 until 1958, and then went on to study in London with Mátyás Seiber in 1959 and with Pierre Boulez in Basle in 1960--61. His early training with van Baaren and Mátyás Seiber disposed him toward twelve-tone technique, and his earliest compositions, such as the Introductie en adagio in oude stijl (1954) and the Septet (1957), combine traditional forms with dodecaphony. Boulez, however, led him to a more radical, strict form of serialism, and he was regarded in the Netherlands as one of the outstanding representatives of the avant garde (Groot 2001). While still a student he created his opus 1, Passacaglia and Fugue for organ (1954), and Septet (1957). In 1957 he also won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award.
In the late sixties Schat became associated with the radical student movement, and was involved in the notorious 1969 "notenkrakersactie" (Nutcracker Action) in which a group of activists interrupted a concert by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, demanding an open discussion of music policy (Beer 1994). That same year, Schat contributed, together with the composers Reinbert de Leeuw, Louis Andriessen, Jan van Vlijmen, and Misha Mengelberg, and the writers Harry Mulisch and Hugo Claus, in Reconstructie, a sort of opera, or "morality" theatre work, about the conflict between American imperialism and liberation (Groot 2001).
The 1970s brought Schat's most distinctive contribution to 20th century music theory, the "tone clock". It lends its name to a translation of his collected essays, The Tone Clock (Contemporary Music Studies).
Entelechie II was Peter Schat's second piece bearing that title. It is based on a text by Bert Schierbeck. The loose-leaf score consists of sex scenes in which "subjects" are framed by "commentary," "interruptions," and "incantations" in accordance with strict serial principles. Each secne is preceded by an incantation sung by the mezzo-soprano and led by one of the musicians, the so-called guide, who uses "signals" to indicate which fragments are to be performed. As in Entelechie I, the ensemble is split into five groups placed in different parts of the performance space.
Peter Schat (June 5, 1935, in Utrecht - February 10, 2003, in Amsterdam) was a Dutch composer.
Schat studied composition with Kees van Baaren at the conservatories in Utrecht and The Hague from 1952 until 1958, and then went on to study in London with Mátyás Seiber in 1959 and with Pierre Boulez in Basle in 1960--61. His early training with van Baaren and Mátyás Seiber disposed him toward twelve-tone technique, and his earliest compositions, such as the Introductie en adagio in oude stijl (1954) and the Septet (1957), combine traditional forms with dodecaphony. Boulez, however, led him to a more radical, strict form of serialism, and he was regarded in the Netherlands as one of the outstanding representatives of the avant garde (Groot 2001). While still a student he created his opus 1, Passacaglia and Fugue for organ (1954), and Septet (1957). In 1957 he also won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award.
In the late sixties Schat became associated with the radical student movement, and was involved in the notorious 1969 "notenkrakersactie" (Nutcracker Action) in which a group of activists interrupted a concert by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, demanding an open discussion of music policy (Beer 1994). That same year, Schat contributed, together with the composers Reinbert de Leeuw, Louis Andriessen, Jan van Vlijmen, and Misha Mengelberg, and the writers Harry Mulisch and Hugo Claus, in Reconstructie, a sort of opera, or "morality" theatre work, about the conflict between American imperialism and liberation (Groot 2001).
The 1970s brought Schat's most distinctive contribution to 20th century music theory, the "tone clock". It lends its name to a translation of his collected essays, The Tone Clock (Contemporary Music Studies).
